If you deal with tree nut and/or peanut allergies in your house, or have issues with gluten, then you know how difficult holidays like Valentines Day that focus on candy, can be.

I love homemade versions of my favorite foods, including candy. And when you are dealing with food issues homemade is so much safer to eat, so today I thought I would highlight a few of my favorite homemade nut, peanut, and gluten free candies.

Homemade Peppermint Patties anyone?!

If you are not a fan of mint then maybe these homemade mounds bars are something that you would enjoy.

We love these homemade crunch bars. So easy and so good!

And I can not forget about these homemade heath bars. YUM!

What is your favorite homemade candy to make at home?

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Last week I shared that I have had difficulty adjusting to Sunbutter, but that I am really trying to embrace it.

Well, today’s recipe is my first attempt to really try to love it, and I have to admit it was a great place to start. I mean how can you not like something once it is covered in chocolate. I could get used to eating Sunbutter this way.

My daughter that has the peanut butter allergy really misses peanut butter cups and I can understand why. They really are so good. I used to make a homemade version of peanut butter cups that we loved. (And if you are gluten free, but can have peanuts, go make yourself some. They are a perfect gluten free treat.)

Because we loved the old recipe so much I decided to try replacing the peanut butter with SunButter. I figured it was an easy recipe to make and I would not be out much if we did not like it. Well, the did not liking it was not a problem. My family loved these.

My daughter with the peanut allergy was thrilled  that I made them and that they turned out so well. After she tried them I really realized how much she misses peanut butter and how my not liking things like SunButter has been so wrong.

My not embracing something has made her life a little tougher and I am going to change that. Even if I don’t like SunButter, I need to start doing more with it. And like I said the other day, it may not be the same, but it is still a very good product.

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My sister recently posted a recipe for root beer cake on her site and I knew right away that I needed to try it.

It looked and sounded so good. And I can definitely say that it is very good!

We loved this cake, especially the frosting. I think the frosting would work on just about any chocolate cake. I do add a little more liquid to the frosting to make it thinner, but that is the only change I make to the recipe.

And in case you are wondering, it works with Dr. Pepper also. Being a Dr. Pepper person myself, I just had to try it to see if it would also work. The root beer/Dr. Pepper flavor in this is faint, it is more of a flavor enhancer, so I really think you could even use cherry coke or something like that as well to change up the flavor just a little.

But really you should try this cake. It is really good!

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Gluten free eating, and food allergies, bring about so many changes to your life and in many ways things will never be the same.

I have come to realize that some foods may never be the same, but that is okay.

I have realized that pizza will never taste quite the same. Yes, I can get make a really good gluten free pizza crust, but it is still not quite the same. It is good, but different than a gluten filled pizza crust and I have come to realize that.

A gluten free doughnut or bagel is probably not going to be as good as the real thing, but that is okay. Just because it is not the same, does not mean that it cannot be good. The alternative to our favorite foods may not be exactly like what we used to enjoy, but it can still be good. And over the last few years I have tried hard to remember this.

One thing I will admit to really struggling with though is SunButter. SunButter is a great product and I am so glad that there is a company like SunButter that makes life with nut and peanut allergies so much easier.

But here is where I have struggled, SunButter is not peanut butter. It does not taste like peanut butter and it has a different texture than peanut butter. There is a difference.

If you take a spoonful of each, you can tell the difference. And you can tell a difference in cooking. A SunButter cookie does not taste the same as a peanut butter cookie.

However, I have realized where I have gone wrong with SunButter. I need to stop looking at SunButter as a replacement for peanut butter. For the last two years I have wanted SunButter to be peanut butter and it is not. SunButter is its own product and a good one at that. I realized recently that I need to stop wanting Sunbutter to be peanut butter and to let it shine for what it is, which is SunButter.

It is made from sunflower seeds, so it is going to taste like sunflower seeds do, this is not a bad thing, it is a fact. I am realizing how good Sunbutter can be. I just need to remember it is SunButter, not peanut butter.

As I told my kids the other day I am learning to embrace SunButter. So, coming soon will be some very delicious recipes using SunButter.

Am I the only one that struggles with wanting some foods to be the same? What are your tips for overcoming that?

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The two questions I get asked most often by readers are what is your favorite gluten free pasta and what is your favorite gluten free flour blend. Last week we covered my thoughts on gluten free pasta, so this week I thought we would talk gluten free flour blends.

Gluten free flour blends are where many, and I do mean many, gluten free readers, authors, and bakers will disagree with me. The fact that I feel like I am in the minority is why I have never really answered this question. But after over two years of gluten free baking, and many trials and errors, I am ready to tackle the subject.

You see I do not think there is a perfect blend. I do not think there are two perfect blends. In my opinion, and gluten free baking experience, there is no blend that works well in all things.

Yes, I know that I am going against what many people think on this one, and someday I might change my mind, but for now I really do not think there is a perfect blend or gluten free flour mix.

I also know this is not what most people want to hear. Gluten free cooking can be so overwhelming. You just want your kitchen to be simple again.  And I so understand that. We wish there was a magic blend that worked well in all things. I wish there was a blend that worked in everything, really I do, but it just does not work that way.

What works in pancakes is different than what works in a cookie. What works in a cake is very different than what works in a pie crust. And what might work in a yeast bread will not work in a muffin.

So, the reality is that I am not a gluten free flour blend person. I tend to find more what works for each thing. Yes, this complicates my kitchen a little, but I would rather have a really good cookie that uses the right gluten free ingredients, than just an okay cookie that uses a gluten free blend.

Now, I am not saying that a flour blend can never give you a good result. I have used some and had them work well for some things, but I have never tried one that worked well in everything. I actually have never found a blend that worked well enough, and in enough things, to make it worth keeping on hand. Over all I just find that I get better results using the gluten free flours instead of blends.

Every recipe is different and there is some science behind cooking and baking, and gluten free is no different and that is why no blend works the same. There is science behind cooking and what works for one recipe may not work for another recipe.

So, those are my thoughts on gluten free blends. Now I would love to hear yours?

And yes you are free to disagree with me on this, I know I am going against the grain on this one, but I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with blends.

Have you found one that you really like and that works for all or most things or do you agree with me that there is no perfect blend?

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I love cookies. I love to bake them and I love to eat them. Before going gluten free cookies were my favorite thing to bake. I made them often and gave them away to friends or sent them to work with my husband. And I loved to experiment with new recipes and flavors.

But then gluten free eating entered my life and cookies were no longer my favorite thing to make because they often resulted in many disasters in order to get that end result of a really good cookie.

As I have become more familiar with the various gluten free flours though and what works and what doesn’t, my love of cookie making is coming back, and I am so glad because I have missed cookies.

This gluten free Chocolate Cranberry Cookie that I am sharing today is adapted from a recipe that I made many times over the years. I decided to give it a try gluten free and I was so happy that it turned out on the first try.

These were so good and everyone in my family enjoyed them. In fact my gluten eating husband ate four of them when he got home from work the other day and he kept saying these are so good.

I love it when I can make a gluten free recipe taste as good as the real thing. And when a gluten eating person can’t tell the different.

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One of the questions that I get asked often is about gluten free pasta. Many people have emailed me, or left comments on the recipes on my main site, asking me what I like and what I suggest they try when it comes to gluten free pasta. So, I decided that it was time to share my thoughts on gluten free pasta.

I will be very honest here about gluten free pasta, in my opinion most of them are awful, or at least most of the ones that I tried when I first went gluten free. In fact, the first few brands that I bought had me quite discouraged because I thought that I would never be able to enjoy pasta again.

I got tired of buying and trying gluten free pasta only to have it end up in the trash because it was so bad. Gluten free pasta is expensive. I did not want to keep spending money trying different brands, so I totally understand the frustration with gluten free pastas.

Over the last two years though I have tried a lot of gluten free pastas and I can now say that I love pasta once again. No, none of them are quite the same, but there are several that I really do enjoy and buy often.

Early on in my gluten free life, when I was about to give up on gluten free pasta, my sister told me to try Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta. I had trouble finding this brand at the time in my area, but once I found some we discovered we loved it. And it is still the gluten free pasta that I find I use the most.

Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta has become easier to find in my area, in fact I can usually find it in the small gluten free section of Wal-mart, but I do usually order it online because it is so much cheaper that way.

I recently also discovered Sam Mills Gluten Free Pasta ,thanks again to my sister who told me about it, and we have really enjoyed this one as well. The Sam Mills pasta seems to hold up pretty well when cooked in the oven. The texture of  the Tinkyada pasta changes quite a bit when baked in something like a casserole or my taco pasta, so I am having fun using the the Sam Mills Gluten Free Pasta in some of my casserole type dinners.

Jovial Gluten Free pasta is another one that I tried recently and that we really enjoyed. I heard about Jovial Gluten Free pasta from both The Gluten Free Homemaker and my sister. I have not used this pasta much, but what I have used it for we have really enjoyed. I used it in macaroni and cheese recently and it worked great and I am looking forward to trying this one some more.

I have also tried Quinoa Pasta and I think it works well in pasta salad, but we don’t really like it for eating in spaghetti or casserole type meals.

Now, since I know there are quite a few gluten free pastas available and we all have different opinions, what are your favorite gluten free pastas to use?

Note: This post contains affiliate links, but I was not compensated in any way from these brands to write this post. I truly love and use these products and wanted to share my thoughts on them with you.

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One of my goals for this year is to branch out and try some new gluten free flours. And I am going to focus on trying some of the healthier, less starchy flours.

I recently bought some amaranth flour, teff flour, quinoa flour, and flaxseed to start experimenting with.

I have tried the amaranth and the teff in a few things and the results have been encouraging. I am starting slow and just adding a small portion to a few recipes, but so far it has worked well and I am looking forward to experimenting more with them. And I will keep you updated on how it is going.

If you have used any of these flours I would love to hear your thoughts and tips. I would also love ideas on some other healthier gluten free flours I should try.

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I have a great Bob’s Red Mill breakfast giveaway going on over at my main site.

If you love Bob’s Red Mill, and can tolerate oats, you will want to be sure to enter, because if a gluten free reader wins, they are sending the gluten free versions of the products.

So be sure to enter if you haven’t yet. You have to click here and leave a comment to enter.

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Enjoy Life recently sent me a few of their new varieties of cookies to try and we really enjoyed them.

They sent me the Double chocolate Crunchy Cookie, the Chocolate Chip Crunchy Cookie, the Sugar Crunchy Cookie, and the Vanilla Honey Graham Crunchy Cookie and we loved them all.

But I will say that the Crunchy Double Chocolate Cookie was my favorite.

Now, these are a crispy crunchy cookie. There is nothing soft about them, but that is not a bad thing, we thought they were really good.

What I love about all the Enjoy Life products is that they are free of the top eight allergens, which means that everyone in my family can enjoy them.

I think these cookies would be great for traveling. Traveling with food allergies is always difficult and having products like this that are easy to take with you makes it so much easier. These would also work well for lunches or to keep on hand for kids to take somewhere when they need a treat or cookie to take along that they can have.

Disclaimer: I was sent sample product, but was not compensated for my time. And as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.

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